The large majority of present day dispatch networks have been developed using proprietary hardware and software, usually manufactured by a single manufacturer, and typically cannot be connected to other networks or use other networking equipment due to the lack of common standards. Typically, the parties using the dispatch network are also the owners of the communication infrastructure and the applications which use the infrastructure as well as being employer of all the participants.
Implementation according to a set of open system standards makes sense in a networked environment where it may be wished to interconnect a large number of network components manufactured by a large number of different manufacturers. Migration to open systems typically increases the interconnectivity of a network, allowing the transfer of data, etc., between a significantly larger number of network participants. Additionally, given the standardisation of many of the features of an open system, a broader range of components, devices and even software can be purchased from a variety of third party sources, typically at a considerable savings over those purchased for a closed proprietary network. Also, continuing advances in technology mean that an increasing amount of processing power and communication band width can be taken advantage, leading to many new and advantageous applications.
Typically it is wished to take advantage of the benefits of the open system and to commence using new applications immediately. However, it is typically also wished to maintain the viability of existing applications, at least until such time as the new applications have reached a sufficient stability and extent of usage. It is apparent that much of the existing software and hardware infrastructure supporting the existing applications cannot be used as such in the open system. However, as the existing applications will typically be supplanted by new applications in the relatively near future, in many cases it does not make financial sense to port the applications so that they will work in an open system environment. Typically, therefore, in order to support both the existing applications and the new applications, both the existing software and hardware infrastructure as well as the new software and hardware infrastructure must be supported and maintained. This is particularly the case with dispatch networks, used by police forces amongst others, where there already exists a significant amount of dedicated software and hardware infrastructure supporting the dispatch applications, where the users are also interested in implementing applications within an open systems architecture.
There is therefore the need for a system which can support both applications developed using a closed system architecture and those developed using an open systems architecture, in particular those applications developed using TCP/IP.